1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for attaching a rear work machine to a tractor.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a rear work machine attaching structure, which is for attaching a rear work machine, such as backhoe, to the tractor, the following structure has been known. Specifically in this rear work machine attaching structure, a vehicle body of the tractor is provided on lateral sides thereof with a pair of right and left rear work machine connection bodies protruding rearward, each of which has an upper connection portion and a lower connection portion, while a base frame of the rear work machine is provided with a pair of right and left attaching plates, each of which has an upper engagement portion and a lower engagement portion. By respectively connecting the upper engagement portion and the lower engagement portion of the attaching plate to the upper connection portion and the lower connection portion of the corresponding attaching frame, the rear work machine is coupled to the tractor (see, for example, Japanese unexamined patent applications No. 2008-201328 and No. 2007-261323).
When a rear work machine, such as backhoe, is attached to the tractor having a cabin mounted on a rear portion of the tractor vehicle body, the following problem may arise. Specifically, since the cabin has a rear wall, it is difficult to make the orientation of the front-facing seat inside the cabin switchable to rear-facing, for the purpose of using the same seat also for an operation of the rear work machine. Accordingly, it is necessary to mount a separate operator's seat facing rearward on a front portion of the base frame of the rear work machine.
In order to prevent the rear wall of the cabin from interfering with the operator's seat for the rear work machine, it is necessary to attach the rear work machine, such as a backhoe, rearward away from the tractor vehicle body to a large degree, as compared with a case where the rear work machine is attached to a tractor having a ROPS or the like, instead of the cabin, in the rear portion of the tractor vehicle body. In this case, special members have been conventionally used as the right and left attaching plates each having the upper and lower engagement portions, which extend frontward to a large degree from the base frame of the rear work machine.
Therefore, conventionally, there has been a necessity to use the special attaching plate or the like in the rear work machine, such as backhoe, and thus the conventional rear work machine or the attaching plate thereof with the rear-facing operator's seat to be attached to the tractor with the ROPS or the like cannot be used as-is for the tractor with the cabin, resulting in poor cost efficiency. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a structure for attaching a rear work machine to a tractor that can solve the above-mentioned problem.